Bruce Girrell on fri 11 jan 08
On January 7, Chad Luberger asked about the Peter Pugger VPM20 and VPM30
pugmills.
One statement he made struck me as odd. He said "The 20 has a 45# hopper
capacity and the 30 has a 85# capacity." This statement was very different
from my experience with my VPM30. At that time I was going to write to the
list and say something regarding the batch capacity, but felt that I should
do some checking first. Sure enough, the Peter Pugger website states the
maximum capacity of the VPM30 as 85 lbs.
Recently, I thought I had it figured out. I get about 45 lbs per batch. But
if I clean out the machine (like when I am changing from a dark clay to
porcelain) then I can scrape an additional 40 lbs out of the machine. This
additional clay is retrieved from the cones and from the inside of the
mixing chamber. So 40 + 45 = 85. Right on target with the stated capacity.
But nobody is going to clean out their machine every time just to get the
extra clay out. It still bugged me that Peter Pugger would state the
capacity in that way.
So today I called Peter Pugger to see if they could clear up the confusion.
I didn't want to say anything about their machine that might be perceived as
negative without checking with them first. They have a very good product and
they have always provided me with _excellent_ technical support. These are
good people and I wanted to be sure that I was making an fair and accurate
statement.
Here's the deal:
My VPM30 is fairly old. Since mine was built there have been a number of
design changes. The motor has been significantly upgraded and is actually a
220V 3-phase motor that, with a bit of electronic wizardry, can be run on a
110 V, 20 amp outlet. It is much more efficient than the original motor and
can handle larger loads. Also, the auger has been modified to have much
tighter clearance with the mixing chamber. The result is that you can pack
more clay into the machine and, for however much clay you put into the
machine, you get much more out of the new machine than you would get out of
an old machine packed with the same batch size of clay. My machine leaves
close to 1/2" of clay on the inside of the mixing chamber when it pugs the
clay out, whereas the new machine leaves only about 1/8" of clay. I haven't
calculated the amount, but even that small difference could amount to 15-20
lbs of clay. So the 85 lb max batch size is real and has been verified
several times by testing at Peter Pugger (and even at the studio of a potter
who didn't believe them).
One last thing is that the 85 lb max batch size is, in fact, just that - a
maximum. You have to work to get that much into the machine and you have to
work to get that much out. Generally, people would rather deal with a
slightly smaller batch so that they don't have to work as much. I would
guess that a more practical batch size would be in the neighborhood of 75
lbs.
So there you have it. Once again, I thank Peter Pugger for quickly
addressing whatever issue I have had with their product. Maybe they're still
a small company or maybe it's their business philosophy, but when you call
them, a _human_ answers the phone. Now isn't that different?
Bruce Girrell
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